Courtesy SD Dirk
Love him or hate him, the one thing you have to do is respect him.
The “him” is Tony La Russa, retired St. Louis Cardinals manager.
La Russa left the game he loves on Monday, less than a day after he and his team celebrated the franchise’s 11th World Series title. I was far from shocked. In fact, during one of my recent appearances on 101 ESPN, I hinted that this would happen if the Cardinals ran the table and won the World Series. “I’m a big fan of riding into the sunset. I think [he] would be, too,” I said, when asked if I thought the skipper would call it a career at the end of a successful season.
This is exactly what La Russa chose to do, and I applaud the move. He can’t do anything to top this. Any further achievement would pale in comparison to the historic 10-week run from painful underachievers to world champs.
Amazingly, La Russa leaves the job with a lengthy list of detractors. In fact, had the Cards not won the World Series, his Game 5 performance would have followed him into retirement like a ball and chain.
But the Cards did win, and La Russa got the last laugh—or maybe I should say the last smirk, because you rarely saw him genuinely giggle or guffaw.
He also accomplished something in the last two weeks of this season that I didn’t think would ever be possible: He replaced one of my all-time baseball heroes, Whitey Herzog, at the top of my “Best Cards Manager” list.
Herzog will always be my favorite manager, but once La Russa won his third National League pennant and then a second World Series crown, he surpassed Herzog in performance. Both won three NLCS titles, yet La Russa won that elusive third world title.
His brooding and stubbornness was enough to make you want to slap him. His defense of silly trends, like batting the pitcher eighth or refusal to acknowledge that Albert Pujols and other select stars didn’t have to always hustle, defied the logic of the baseball gods.
He didn’t care that many fans and common folk didn’t like him. His job was to win baseball games, and he did it.
The Cardinals’ next manager might be easier to deal with and might actually bring a sense of humor to Busch Stadium on most days. He most likely will be more relaxed and not be a tyrant toward media types during postgame interviews. He might actually win big for the next few seasons. But he won’t be Tony La Russa.
While I’m not surprised to see La Russa go, I am surprised to find myself writing that I will miss him. I truly thought that would never, ever, ever happen.
By the way, I wouldn’t bet against La Russa returning to run another Major League team in the future. It would be totally Tony La Russa to do just that.
Commentary by Alvin Reid
